house members are leaving washington. they'll return after christmas. >> you have to believe this is so telling about the trouble that speaker boehner is having corralling his troops in the house. even though the president said $250,000, they went up to $400,000 and boehner said $1 million. even that wasn't enough to appease some republicans in the house. absolutely no tax hikes. so this says a lot about speaker boehner's leadership and his control over the house. buildli buildling a consensus there. so now we don't know where things are going to go from here. >> it was a complete failure and embarrassment. >> it was. >> i think we can all agree. >> again, all of this, no matter who fails or wins, it leaves the country in limbo, because people are like, it's abstract now. you open that first check in january, everyone is going to go, this is what the fiscal cliff meant. >> not so abstract. >> no. >>> in other news, new jersey's popular governor will not face a challenge from another leading politician in that state. newar